Memories of Bishopstoke

Dorset Dairies

Jacqueline Jackson, if you read this email me please waxrose@libertyseniorliving.com.au  Would your great grandfather be a Harry Hann? He was the owner of Dorset Dairies next to my birthplace in Factory Road, Eastleigh. I went to school in Chamberlayne Road, Eastleigh in 1941-48 and Peter Symonds, Winchester in 1948-1953 with Harry senior's sons, Harry jnr and his older brother James (later Sir James, CEO of Scottish Nuclear and recently passed).  Our family's Sunday walks took us up through Bishopstoke and into the woods, I recall the tip up that way during the war being full of Yankee scrap, comic books etc and of course the camp set up on the Rec in Eastleigh where we found countless discarded pennies. Well, enough for a lolly ration. And now I think about it and my current mobility it was a long walk. Oh yes, and as for Benny Hill, my mother spoke to me about his visit to former customers, which I supposed was Dorset Dairies in Eastleigh, and him paying their milk bill, but I have found no confirmation, maybe it was the start of an urban myth. Added 16th Sept 2009 I have just contacted a Tony Lawford who sat next to me in primary school, Chamberlayne Road, and he advised me that my birthplace was now developed into an office block and MacDonalds and in a place of prominence is a plaque noting his visit back to Dorset Dairies.   Anyone interested google friendsreunited for access to a nostalgic tour of the net you will have no idea of how many people are out there looking for you
John Scott
Brisbane, Australia
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The above two refs are photos of Eastleigh, the first is the Benny Hill plaque and the second the Natwest Bank, both taken by old Chamberlayne Road school chum Tony Lawford. It is not possible to add photos to the Francis Frith website, but it you would like me to email you a copy please feel free to contact me on waxrose@libertyseniorliving.com.au

The Anchor

G & G Wellman had the Anchor Inn before The Leigh Hotel.

Number 2 Montague  Terrace

Barbara Brian.  I loved reading your memories of Montague Terrace and I thank you for them. Were you the young Miss Andrews that rode that posh bicycle and lived behind the shop and did your dad at times teach tap dancing in the shop store that had large placards built against it? I remember Mr Andrews very well, a little man that wore a sports jacket, cap and glasses.  I may have the wrong Miss Andrews, I hope it's you.
                                      
First may I tell you who I am and perhaps you may remember little Freddie Cannock from number 2, whose father kept his little car in your father's yard just by the old mill.  My father has only just died at over a hundred.
                                  
We moved into number 2 in about 1932.  At that time Mr Andrews was the first shop on the corner at Riverside, then Baker's the milk shop who had just moved in, then Mr Punker the butcher with his two sons and a daughter, next the Miss Malpus and two sisters in grocery and then Mr and Mrs Richardson also grocery.  We then came to the post office and I believe a Mr Marsh.  The next shop was up Spring Lane that in turn was a fish and chip shop I believe and then for a long time a bicycle repair shop and later during the war had a petrol pump.  On then to the corner with the Co-op, across the road dear Mrs Turner and Miss Humby (later I delivered newspapers for them), it was then Mr Mullock the shoe repair man and then Mr Gibson, a very kind man that always gave us kids sweets if we shopped there.
                                      
Now for the school in Church Road.  When I started in 1933 the seniors were about to leave so the teachers that you mention I cannot remember but those I do were:  Miss Hawkins, Street, Bates, Moore (head of infants and a lovely kind lady), we then had a Miss Pike and then Mr Waterhouse then in 1939 the war began and the boys and girls were separated and sent to Eastleigh.
                                      
I too bathed in the rivers of Bishopstoke in those long summer days when we would take a jam sandwich and a bottle containing water and lemonade powder to the meadows and when the bottle was empty we drank from the river (I can still taste it). We played at night under the gas light outside your dad's shop,  Elsie White and her sister Joyce, Joan Williams and my friend Bob and all the other kids from Montague Terrace until our mothers would call our names and it was time for bed.
                                         
Let me describe the interior of number 2.  The front door with its blistered green paint and a letter box minus its flap and if you put your finger in you felt a string, give it a pull and you were in.  A narrow passage with a door to your right into the front room only to be used at Christmas when the fire was lit and for the first hour a strong smell of damp to be superseded by the smell of oranges and spices.  At the foot of the stairs another door to the right led into the kitchen and our main living room.  It was in there that we ate by gaslight warmed by the little heat from the coal stove with the oven.  We would sit on hard chairs all evening around this little fire burning our fronts and freezing on our backs whilst sprats sizzled in the pan and at other times there was winkles for tea.  Down one step and you were into the scullery a dark and dismal place.  There was no light down there so at night we kept the kitchen door open with the aid of a flat iron. There was only one water tap in the house and it was there in the corner with a very primitive shallow sink where we did the pots, pans and dishes and also washed ourselves.  Our bathing facilities hung on a wall in the back yard.  There were three bedrooms up stairs each with it's own little fire only to be lit if Doctor Symons was coming.
                               
So many more memories and little space to record them.  Please can I go back for just one day to laugh again with the kids of Montague Terrace.   Thankyou.   

KNIGHT'S DAIRIES

I Have just found out that my great grandfather owned dairies in Bishopstoke and that Benny Hill worked for him. I am 61 now, and have lost the majority of older relatives, that there is so much I would like to find out, but no-one to ask. I was actually brought up in Nightingale Avenue, but my dad was a Stoke boy.

Bathing in the River

Montague terrace was home to many children. I remember the Allen's, John, June, Barry, Hazel, Ivan & Valerie. The White's, Maurice and Barbara, The William,s and Smith,s, Joan, Roy, Margaret, Jeffrey, and at least three younger ones. Plus Pauline Sollet, Valerie & Johnnie Butt. We all played in the road outside of Andrews Hardware shop. I was born on the top floor of that shop and my grandparents Harry and Lucy Andrews owned it. My mum was Joan who also lived and worked in the shop.
We, the children, spent the summers paddling in the river which had a concrete base and was shallow in summertime. Us older ones would go down river a little and swin through 'the hole' well it came up to my chest if I walked through. The mums would get through the railings and using drain holes as steps climb down and clear all weed from the concrete base as soon as the lock closed the water flow down. Then even the little ones of the road would be allowed in, and us bigger kids all of the age of 5 to 8 would splash and play with them. We would all then lay on the paving slabs by the bus stop to dry off in the sun, leaving our wet mark when we went in again.
So many good memories of Bishopstoke. The rose garden in the corner of the rec, and old George the gardener chasing us out if he saw us. The old church tower and yew tree. We all climbed it and had great fun when the original tomb stones were in place, winding cotton from tomb to tomb. When folk who oft would cut through as a shortcut to the barge just might think a ghost had caught them!!! The many games in Montague Terrace, two ball, skipping ropes, marbles, whipping tops and hop schotch. Even tiddler fishing with jam jars and bluebell gathering from the local woods. What a lot the modern day youngster is missing.
I also remember Mr Collis and he frightened me too. Mr Marshall was the Head at the time and Mr Lloyd was my teacher at Bishopstoke Junior School. Does anyone remember Charlie the milkman and his horse Pat, or remember seeing the lamplighters on their bikes?? Likewise I used to get a 1p worth of scraps from the chip shop, and sit at Bournes 'beach' where often Montague Terrace mum's took the kids for a picnic. We would go swimming here too, on the far side of the river where the water was fast flowing and deep, Again 'the hole' would let us swin for several yards before the river became shallow again. On the nearside of the bank where the picnicer's sat, the shore was sandy and very shallow so the little kids could paddle. Does anyone remember when the hall was replacing the old maroon tin hut. All the men and some women from the families in Bishopstoke, turned in to raise the new hall? So many more memories but too many to write here.
Ahh well those were the days.

Nurse Emery and Caretaker Collis

I remember Nurse Emery on her pushbike delivering both of my brothers at home.  We lived in St Mary's Road, behind the church.
I also went to Bishopstoke infants school and was duly frightened by the caretaker, a Mr Collis with a built up boot on his foot - scared me half to death when I was a kid.
Miss Starr was my teacher, she also taught my 2 brothers and then later on taught my two eldest sons.
My grandfather also told me that in the Mount grounds there was a plant or a tree taken from every country in the world........anyone else hear this?

Nanny Blake/Baker

Spring Lane where Edith Baker lived and helped with the birth of many of Bishopstoke's babies.

I would love to receive stories of her.

Fish and chip shop - Smart's Fish Saloon

Ref: Smarts Fish Saloon, Bishopstoke - it was as a boy in the early forties that we visited this shop to buy fish and chips and more often to buy a pennyworth of scraps which sometimes had a few chips in with them. At that time we had to take our own paper to wrap them in.  We then took them to the old churchyard to the large yew tree with a wooden seat underneath and finished them off. I think the yew tree may still be there, at this time it was called Densleys Fish and Chip Shop, obviously the owners before it became Smarts Fish Saloon. I then lived in Church Road and spent much time in the rec, and under the yew tree doing what all boys of that age did - climbing the tower and chasing the girls of course. I wish I was that agile now!

Fish and Chips

I remember very well Smarts fish and chips. Soaked in malt vinagar and wrapped in news paper. Hot and smelling so good.

I remember well Mr and Mrs Pellerade, I wished they were my parents because they were such kind and nice folks.

I remember Mrs Pellerade had a china cup, held up to the light and the face of a lady would appear.

I remember Mrs Pellerade had a Hoover, I had never seen one before and the noise frightened me.

I hope Sandra and Margo, are well and happy, I remember you both very well.

Smart's Fish Saloon.

Re Smart's Fish Saloon. My parents Peter and Wyn Pellerade owned this from 1952 to the early 60s when it was demolished to make room for flats. The site never got used but has recently been developed into a doctors surgery. This was in the ancient rights of Bishopstoke, the original post office. It was a beautiful 4 bedroom cottage with the shop space of three rooms on the side.